


Cottage Dreams

by Lilac_00



Category: Original Work
Genre: Best Friends, Comedy, Fluff, Gen, Girl Power, Living Together, Normal Life, Slice of Life, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:22:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24438886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilac_00/pseuds/Lilac_00
Summary: An alternative universe, where choices are easy to make and dreams are easily met.Or,A story about the daily lives of a bunch of young women, who live in a shared apartment and call it "The Cottage".
Relationships: Original Character(s)/Original Character(s)
Kudos: 10





	1. One more cup of coffee

_Beep beep_

A familiar sound comes from the screenpad beside the doorframe. Familiar, because Katha always gets the password wrong for the first times. She isn’t that good with passwords, and she rarely has to press it to enter the house because there's always someone who opens it for her from the inside. Today's an exception though. It was a busy night at the Cafe, someone had booked it for a birthday celebration which ended very late. She didn’t need to stay till the end, her staffs are eligible enough to handle a party, but she always stays back when there's any reservations. It makes her feel good and responsible as the owner of the cafe.

**_0-8-2-0_ **

Katha presses correctly this time and the door opens with a light sound. She picks her handbag from the floor while holding a big white bag in another hand. The house feels relatively quiet tonight, considering it is a Thursday night. This could only mean that all her roommates are in their own rooms and not in the kitchen, preparing some late night snacks, nor in the living space, watching random channels on their big TV.

Thursday nights are the definition of comfort and fun for Katha. She's a working woman afterall, and her schedule is indeed tight. Ever since she opened up her flower cafe, she learnt that living the dreams doesn't come as easy as it says in the books. Sometimes her weeks go so packed that she barely sees the faces of her friends. But she goes through those weeks, just like she goes through every other struggle of her life. She knows that there are moments when life gets unbearable, but she always reminds herself that it's worthy. Life's worthy. Her happiness is worthy. 

Katha places the big white bag on top of the kitchen counter. She'll get back to it's components once she has freshen up. She glances at the door adjacent to the stairs. It's slightly open and she can see soft lights coming out of it. Her tired legs instantly takes her to the room of her friend and she peeps inside without thinking. 

Medha's room is probably the tidiest one in the house, as she spends a good amount of time inside and taking care of her surroundings. But at this moment, her room is what could be defined as - messy. There are lots of papers and colored pens on the floor, her laptop sits open and the screen shows a very complicated design of a floral gown. But, Medha herself is absent within the four walls of this catastrophe. 

Katha knows very well where to find her. She crosses the room to get closer to the little open balcony attached to the room and is met with the most common sight. There sits Medha on one of the couches, holding a cup in her hands and looking at the stars. Medha doesn’t drink tea or coffee, so she has no use of holding a cup of warm chamomile tea in her hands, but she does anyways. The smell helps her nerves and the warmth of the cup feels good on her hands, she says. That's why she stole a pack of organic chamomile tea from the huge stash of her next-door friend. Medha wouldn’t call it stealing though, as she's pretty affirmative of the fact that a tea sommelier would never notice one missing pack of tea out of 100 other packs!

"Hey", Katha speaks lightly, her voice comes out tired, and Medha turns her head immediately. The whole balcony is lit with pale golden fairy lights and when Medha looked at her, her face shines with soft golden rays. Her eyes fills up with affection when she finds Katha standing near the shelves of the little succulents.

"Heeey, you're late today!", Medha chirps in and moves forward to lightly hug her friend with one hand. 

"Yeah, busy night at the cafe. I'm so tired, my eyes are already sleeping I tell you", Katha speaks from the hug. "Why are you here alone? I thought you’ll be upstairs now." 

Medha groans at the question and slumps back into the couch. "New order", she replies with irritation in her voice, "and this design is so complicated, I will literally suck my own dick if I can ever pull this off!" 

Katha lets out a loud smile at this because 1. Medha, unfortunately, doesn’t have a dick to begin with and 2. She will literally pull off any complicated design in no time.

Despite sounding irritated, Medha has immense love for what she does. There are many fashion designers in the city, but Medha still stands apart from them. Her designs speak sophistication like nothing else and the industry knew it well. That's why she has such a good reputation among the big companies despite being an independent, individual designer who prefers working from home. 

_You have an eye for the kind of beauty that is invisible to others_ \- is what one of her clients had told her years ago. She still remembers it by heart because she had been merely a student back then, and someone wanting her to create a customized prom dress only after noticing her instagram was a huge thing. She never knew posting the designs that she did for weekly assignments or monthly evaluations on a public Instagram account will take her to such big places. But she's glad it did, as no sooner had she posted the picture of that _peach-colored-turtle necked-organza-prom-dress_ , the whole Internet had a meltdown over it. 

She got 57 dms that night, asking her to accept their custom orders. Some dms had contained email addresses of high profile fashion brands who wanted to offer paid internships to her, but she had turned those down at that time. She wanted to do well in Uni, and focus on building up her own designing style before working under any company. But she was also a broke college student, which is why she took up all the custom orders and got paid a huge load of fresh cash within a month. She also realised that this is what she wanted to do after graduation, rather than joining a company. She stayed independent without a label or management and kept taking orders from individuals or brands. Now only three years after graduations, she clearly succeeded in making a name for herself in the industry.

"Don't be dramatic", Katha chuckles, "You will literally finish the design by tomorrow and you know that too". 

Medha gives her a sly smile at that, "Yes but I can still be dramatic about it, it's free and therapeutic!" 

Katha ignores the whole sentence while moving inside the room, "Where's everybody btw? In their rooms?" 

"I suppose so, maybe doing their own shits since the movie night got cancelled tonight."

Katha feels a little bad that they had to cancel their weekly movie nights because of her late schedule tonight. She usually tries her best to keep the Thursday nights free, not only to uphold their tradition, but also to enjoy the presence of her best friends. Each one of them has their own life going on, and it is hard to find a common free day to hang out with each other. So they planned on handling the problem systematically, by declaring the weekend as " _Fun night_ " and promising to watch movies together no matter what! Although it's not uncommon for the movie night to get cancelled (it literally happened a hundred times when Medha had a deadline, or Raisa was not feeling the mood, or Nusfaq was busy shooting something) but Katha still felt bad because she herself had been looking forward to it for the whole week. It was her turn to choose a movie this week and she had just the perfect rom-com in her mind!

Medha quickly senses the spark of guilt in Katha's face and steps forward to her, "Yah don't make that face now! We all know you're gonna go snuggle Nusfu now so spare the audience your sad, beautiful, gorgeous eyes!" 

Katha breaks into another smile at this and paces towards the door, "And the audience knows that you'll give into your urges and join us within the next 10 minutes" 

"STOP EXPOSING ME!!", Medha shriekes from the room.

Katha's steps halt when her eyes falls upon the door across the small dining space between the two bedrooms. All of them had unanimously agreed that they didn't need a big dining table to consume any precious space of the lower floor, as they mostly sit around the open counter in the kitchen with their plates, or sit on the floor of the living room while watching TV. But this unoccupied space had a big window that allowed to speculate beautiful sunrises on autumn mornings and gave access to chilly air on summer nights. So Katha insisted on setting up a round, white table in this space, so she could enjoy her free time more comfortably. The table is rather small, consisting only 3 chairs around it, but it holds a special place in the residents' hearts. Katha likes to enjoy a cold drink here, sitting in the cold breeze of the night. Anan and Medha often eat lunch here when it's just the two of them present at home. Medha also takes her online art classes in this space, since it's easier to set up a tripod by her while she paints on a canvas and teaches simple methods of stroking the brushes in the right manner. 

The door close to the dining space resembles the color of a pale amethyst, and has a wind chime tied from the top of the frame. It had a different vibe from Medha's artsy door, which was in light mauve and had a beautiful dreamcatcher placed upon it. Unlike Medha's door, this one is shut off and probably locked from the inside too. Katha closes the distance to the door and her nostrils immediately pick up a faint scent of lavender and peach.

Her fist is about to kiss the wooden door to create a light knock when she hears the monotonous notes of a piano playing on the opposite side. Katha recognizes the piece at once as she has seen the owner of this room listen to the same composition for hours, for uncountable times. Gymnopédie no. 1 and scented candle behind a closed door meant only one thing - Raisa is _writing_. And writing means being submerged so deeply in her thoughts that her mind could barely keep up with reality. Katha retracts her fist to herself because Raisa wouldn't move from her spot even if hells break loose now. There is no point of knocking when the other wouldn’t open the door.

Katha peakz back inside Medha's room, only to find her sprawling on the ground and having some kind of a staring contest with the sample design on her laptop.

"What about Rai? She's writing..." 

Medha flashes out a fond smile without breaking the staring contest, "Don' worry, I'll bring her." 

The sentence spills rather easily off Medha's lips but Katha knows that she meant it, she will indeed bring Raisa upstairs. 

Katha climbs up the stairs clutching the handle of her bag. The upper floor of their apartment has 4 bedrooms in total, 2 on each length of a corridor. Katha opens the door of her bedroom but doesn't go inside. She lightly throws her bag towards the general direction of her bed, then walks up to the door next to hers and turns the knob without bothering to knock at all.

Someone lets out a piercing scream from the inside. 


	2. When The Stars Align

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Movie Night Requirements : Choosing a movie that suits everyone's preferences
> 
> Series Night Requirements : To hell with anyone’s opinion

If Nusfaq is to self-evaluate her sense of humor, level of sarcasm and depth of savageness, she will confidently say that she fell way above the average mark. There has been many occurrences where Nusfaq was able to hit the audience with the right joke at the right moment and assert _comedic dominance_ over her peers. She would take pride in saying that she had successfully been a part of many funny incidents, but the event that occurs at 11:36pm of 17th February, 2024 is not one of those. Yes, the _little_ sound that has escaped from her vocal chords is maybe a little surprising, or even scary if someone insists. But Katha begs to differ. 

“C'mon it wasn’t that funny! Why are you still laughing, it's been 7 minutes already!" Nusfaq says meekly. Unfortunately her voice is barely audible to Katha, who is bent in half with a hand over her stomach, and another one on the doorframe to support her weight. She isn’t just laughing.

She is _level-10 WHEEZING._

"Because I saw the look on your face Nusfaq! How can you get so startled at this!”, Katha manages to say between her snorts. 

Nusfaq just looks at her helplessly. In her defense, she was sitting in complete darkness (even though the curtains were parted and the wide window of her room was supposed to pass some streetlight in), eyes glued to her laptop screen and one hand deep inside a bag of Cheetos when Katha opened the door. She did not hear the knob turning at all. So when her eyes fell upon a dark mysterious shadow standing quietly at her doorstep, she did exactly what a man with dignity and grace would do: Scream.

Katha’s gaze falls towards Nusfaq’s lap and her expression immediately softens, “See, you even woke him up with your monstrous scream.”

“Uh-huh, you did with your 97-decibel laugh.”

None of them means what they said as both of them knows what a light sleeper Clouds is. He is also very quiet, so he could have been awake for the whole time as well. Nusfaq pets the small pup laying on her lap and lightly strokes through his snowy fur. It had taken them, all of them, a long time to decide on bringing someone new into the house. But it took Nusfaq, Medha and Katha merely 2 minutes to choose this small, fluffy Samoyed as the 7th member of their family. **_It reminded me of the clouds_** \- all three of them had said that after returning from the pet adoption center. And that’s why his name was kept after the word that always reminded them of the warmth and happiness this puppy radiates ~ Clouds.

“You gonna come cuddle him or what? He knows you’re here.” 

“Ofcourse he does. But I’ll have to shower first. What are you watching?”

Nusfaq takes a quick glance at the screen before returning her attention to Clouds, “Tales of Youth. How far are you?’

“9th episode, you?”

“8th now, it’s perfect then! You go wash up and I’ll catch up to 9th by then!”

Katha nods with a smile and takes light steps towards her own room. Even if the movie night had got cancelled, she knew that she'll have a good time tonight. 

꙳꙳꙳꙳

It is half past midnight when Medha bounces into Nusfaq's room, with Raisa in tow. Their sleepwears tell a lot about their personalities. Medha is dressed up in her Navy blue striped pajama set, while Raisa in an oversized grey hoodie with plain cotton trousers. The latter seems quite tired, eyes droopy and cheecks flushed. Her pixie cut hair is sticking out at every direction. Typical writing session ~ Nusfaq thinks. She and Clouds move to the furthest side of the bed so Medha and Raisa could chip in. She has the biggest bed in the house, which made her room an unofficial meeting and cuddling place for all of them. 

Nusfaq passes over the extra duvet to the duo, and feels Raisa snuggling to her arm. Raisa and she are probably the touchiest friends among all, while Medha can pass for the clingiest. "What did you write about?", Nusfaq asks softly. 

"Hmm?"

She lets Raisa hook arms with her and lean on her shoulder. It's common for Raisa to get deeply lost in words and scribbles, and it takes her some time to be completely back into the reality. So Nusfaq repeats her question.

"Nothing much, just something that's been on my mind for a while."

"Oh. Okay." Nusfaq doesn't ask further, she never does. If Raisa were to share her ideas with them, she would do it upon her own wishes. So, no pressure. 

"What are we watching tonight?", Medha sounds much more energetic for someone who usually slept by midnight. 

"Does it matter? You'll fall asleep within the next 11 minutes anyway", Raisa deadpanns and her palm meets Nusfaq's in a light high-five. 

This is _their_ thing. Pulling Medha's leg at any given chance because Medha falls for it every. damn. time.

Before Medha can protest the door opens again and Katha strides in lazily. She has a maroon, worn out t-shirt on that looks a little too big on her and smells like baby powder. " _Heaven_ is so quiet tonight, no? Only two of us are absent but it feels deserted." 

Their apartment - " _The Cottage"_ isn’t big or luxurious, but it is spacious enough for the 6 of them to live comfortably. The upperworlders named their floor _Heaven_ , and Raisa started calling the lower one by _Paradise_. 

Medha's eyes hold a fond expression when she thinks about the friends who are not in the house tonight. "You're right. I miss them..." 

"Oh C'mon Mii, it's just a day, they'll be back tomorrow." Katha sneaks inside the duvet as well and stops Medha's train of thoughts. "Okay resume the series, Nusfu!"

"What series?" Medha and Raisa pipe in unison and Medha tries to put emphasis on the fact that they should watch something they all are familiar with, aka _what about Disney?_ But they all fall silent as soon as the room fills up with the booming sound from the speaker and the white light of the screen.

Minutes pass, or maybe hours. The clock ticks endlessly. Their tired eyes are locked on the screen - tired from a week worth of stress and fatigue. They all listen to Medha's breath getting slower and steadier as she drifts off to deep sleep. 

The night grows older. 

Raisa stands up from the bed with shaky legs when the clock hits 3:35 and slowly tugs Medha for getting back to her room. As much as they will like to have a sleepover, it is not physically possible for the bed to fit 4 grown women. 

After the _Paradisers_ left, Nusfaq and Katha shuffle closer to each other while clicking on the next button on Netflix. Lazy conversations flow in, light chuckles are heard here and there. 

The night is young. 

They cherish the taste of dawn on their mouths. And their senses are covered with tales. 

_The tales of their youth._

꙳꙳꙳꙳

Friday mornings are usually quiet in The Cottage, considering the residents always sleep till late after wrapping up the movie nights. Today, the sun is bright when the clock shows 8:40 am. Surprisingly, the rattling of dishes and spoons and spatulas can already be heard from the open kitchen. 

Raisa is currently pondering over the amount of flour she should add to the wet ingredients of the bowl. _Will they like pancakes or crêpes?_ In all honesty, it doesn’t matter a lot, as her friends will be good with anything. They rarely get to have breakfast at home, let alone _together_. Katha always maintains a ritual of getting breakfast with her staff and coworkers at the cafe, _it's for bonding_ , she says. Raisa, Nusfaq and Mourushy all take breakfasts at different times, depending on the day and their schedules. They're also the ones to completely skip breakfasts the most. Medha is probably the only regular visitor of the kitchen every morning, while Anan tries her best to accompany her on most days.

Raisa is not a morning person at all, she barely manages to wake up by 9 even if she has early appointments. But after returning from Nusfaq's room yesterday night, she had set up five alarms from 8:15 to 8:30am. _A breakfast together after months will be a nice way to feel good for the upcoming week,_ she thought.

"Why are you up so early?"

Raisa turns to see Medha tying up her long hair in a loose ponytail. Her rilakumma themed flip-flops barely made any sound of her arrival. Medha notices the bowl of batter and a whisk in her hands, "What are you making?"

"Woaah, slow down with the questions Janet, I barely woke up", Raisa doesn’t want to give up on bickering even in the early morning. "I just wanted to make some crêpes today, for all of us. And also to give you some break, you always do the morning dishes and stuff."

Raisa goes back to heat up the pan while Medha moves towards her to give a back hug and splutter cheesy words like _awwwwwwn you didn’t have to doooo thiss here let me help youuuu_ and gets ignored by the taller girl. 

"It's just some crêpes Mii, I'll manage. Katha brought some bagels and leftover cakes for us yesterday. It's a feast my man!", Raisa says enthusiastically. 

Medha laughs and moves back from the hug, " Shall I do the eggs then? How do Nusfaq and Katha take their eggs again? (A/N: Pun intended) Omelettes?"

"Poached. And boiled for us. Soft for you, hard for me." (A/N: Again, pun intended) 

Medha is about to walk towards the refrigerator for taking out the eggs when Raisa stops her. "I got thiiiss!", Raisa nags " Just go and finish your yoga. And then bring the princesses to breakfast." 

"Yes chief, but let me atleast make my morning drink."

Raisa pays her no attention while sliding a glass of apricot colored liquid towards Medha's directions. Warm water with honey lemon for increasing body immunity. 

This is what Medha loves about their intertwined lives. The domesticity melts her heart and the familiarity makes her feel safe. She is about to start with another series of _awwwwns_ when they hear footsteps coming from the stairs. "Good morning babe!" Raisa shouts knowing fully well that it's Katha, because her body alarm doesn’t let her sleep after 9am even on weekends. 

"Good mor-- oh you're making breakfast already", Katha says between yawns, " I brought some stuff from the cafe yesterday" 

"I saw, the bagels are in the toaster." 

Medha has finished drinking her _fancy water_ sitting on a tool beside the counter by now and exchanges her morning greetings with her friend before returning to her Yoga routine.

"What do I do? Are you done with crêpes?" Katha intents to walk behind the counter but Raisa interferes. 

"Nothing and yes, I'm done. Just freshen up and bring Nusu down."

Katha gives in easily. It feels nice to take a break from routined works. Her mornings are all about baking and making and serving, it's nice to be served sometimes too. Little things like this really make your day, don't they?

꙳꙳꙳꙳

It’s almost 10 when all of them assemble around the kitchen counter. They sit on the comfortable tools and pass the bagels to each other. Comparing to what they usually eat for breakfast, today's menue is grand. Crêpes with fresh fruits and syrups, toasted bagels with butter and cream cheese and eggs in the ways they prefer it. Raisa settles with a cup of Earl Grey and hands over a steaming mug of Cappuccino to Katha. Medha pours herself some water while Nusfaq looks for a can of apple juice in the freezer. 

"Has anyone talked to Anan? She's on the bus yet?" Nusfaq throws the question as she puts some cream cheese over her bagel.

"Mhhmm-- I did", Medha replies with a full mouth, "She started at 7. Should be here any moment now!"

Anan's _very short_ trip is important to all of them, maybe more than the said girl herself. Anan barely goes anywhere that is not one of her job places. She's very devoted to what she does for a living, because it was very tough for her to decide on it. She was torn between choosing something that's related to her major and doing something that she knew would make her happy, if not rich. She has always loved kids, after all. The part-time job she had taken at the daycare center on her 2nd year of uni had given her more happiness than graduation itself. The work never felt tiring, even on her busiest days, even during her exams. She wanted to keep doing it, being surrounded by genuine little souls who know nothing of the world's cruelty, caring for them, teaching them, playing with them. But the pay from a daycare center barely touches the amount needed for leading a decent life. 

She pondered a lot, questioned herself over and over, locked everyone out. But then she received a push from her friends, she found a way that would allow her to do what she wanted to do and also cover her living expenses. After 3 months of testing period, she finally joined a Pre school as a full time teacher for standard l and ll kids. It was the most joyous and blissful moment of her life 

But being a teacher is hectic, far more hectic than being a daycare worker. The children of the school need constant care and support, and also newer, more fun ways to learn things. Anan fully occupied her time to be someone who doesn’t teach kids for money only, but for truly giving them what they needed to grow up as beautiful human beings. She poured her soul into her job, and barely kept any time for herself.

Which is why, when the school had announced a one-day camping trip to a nearby spot, the cottage jumped upon her. _YOU HAVE TO GO! YOU DON'T GO ANYWHERE EXCEPT THE SCHOOL AND THE DAYCARE! YOU NEED THIS BREAK!!_ Oh, she hasn’t stopped visiting her daycare center too. Whenever she has some free time, she drops by to meet the kids and chat with her former colleagues. So, absolutely no time to travel anywhere.

After much hesitance and negotiation with her friends, she agreed to tag along with her colleagues at the school. Maybe she did need to cut herself some slack in a while.

"Anyone called Rushy? Her phone was unreachable last night." Katha takes a big sip from her mug. Caffeine always does the trick.

"I left her a message, she didn’t reply though. Probably still busy with her crew"

"Hmm..", Raisa agrees with Nusfaq, " Cons are always so packed. There are so many after parties after the main schedule, I'm sure she got busy and her phone died. As usual."

Medha is about to insert the incidence of a conversation where _Mourushy had actually gone out of town without taking her phone charger_ into the conversation when the doorbell chimed. 

All 4 tools made a screeching noise as 4 pairs of feet rush towards the main door. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ A/N : Author's Note ]
> 
> A longer update! 
> 
> I'm sorry to probably the 6 readers I have, as I wanted to update sooner. But I got late because as soon as I started writing the 2nd chapter, I realised that I wrote the 1st chapter in past tense for no reason and continuing with past tense felt dull :/// So I edited the entire chapter and transformed it to present tense, I feel it's more lively now! Pls give it a read again :((
> 
> P.S #1: I've decided to keep the original nicknames the characters call each other by, hopefully that wont get confusing for you.
> 
> #2 I'm slowly mentioning and introducing the characters one by one, so pls be patient ^^
> 
> #3 To the readers that I personally don't know about, I'd love if I could get some comments on my writing! 
> 
> Thank you for reading! Next update hopefully in 2 days! Ciao!


	3. One Day At A Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end note might be bigger than the chapter itself so don't say I didn't warn you
> 
> also
> 
> Welcome back to the Cottage, gremlins! *throws a 4.3k chapter on your faces*

Anan's small finger hovers around the doorbell to press it again but the sound of excited feet coming from the other side of the door is a good indication that it won't be necessary. The door of the cottage opens with a loud bang and Anan is presented with four heads with messy bed hair, two hands holding a piece of toast and a cup and eight eyes piercing her face with a mix of joy, concern, affection, excitement and anticipation.

“HI BABY!”

It's hard to pick up the owner of the voice.

“HOW WAS YOUR RIDE” “DID YOU HAVE BREAKFAST” “GOSH GUYS LET HER BREATHE” “COME INNN”

Again, it's hard to pinpoint who is saying what but the sentiment is touching indeed. Anan leaves her shoes on their DIY shoe rack and stepped towards the general direction of the counter. Her four housemates have already returned to their original seats while Anan puts her light backpack on the floor.

"Breakfast?"  
"Done it before getting on the bus", Anan replies, taking a seat on a tall stool and letting her feet hover over the ground.

"That was 2 hours ago". Concern is clear in her best friend’s voice.  
"I'm just not much hungry", Anan tilts her head towards Medha, "But I could use some coffee."

Nusfaq silently gets up to the coffee machine to brew a shot of espresso. Katha shoves a butchered croissant towards Anan's mouth and Anan is forced to take a bite.

"Sooo, how was the camp? Did you have fun?", Raisa beams, clearly very excited to learn about everything that happened during the span of last 24 hours.

"Yeah it was good, I had fun." Anan mumbles, trying to keep her sleepy eyes open while waiting for that coffee.

Raisa looks at Medha in the eyes and passes a silent conversation that doesn’t go unnoticed, but it's nothing to be concerned of as Medha speaks next in an amused voice, "A little details, baby?"

Anan lets out a defeated groan, "Ugh fiinee, there's not much to tell though. We went to the spot, set up our camps, played treasure hunt with the kids, had sandwich and ice cream for lunch, oh! A kid fell and bruised his knee so the handsome homeroom teacher had to treat him and carry him around for the rest of the day, then for Dinner we-"

"Now HOLD UP. Did you say handsome homeroom teacher??", Katha practically cranes her neck over the counter to press on the importance of the issue.  
"Yeah why didn’t you start with that?", Nusfaq joins too.

"That's your takeaway from all these 'details?'" Anan rolls her eyes so hard that they hit the back of her head. Well, almost.

"As if that's a surprise", Raisa slides a cup of steamy Latte to Anan and then wriggles her eyebrows, "What's he like? The homeroom teacher?"

"Nope, I'm not going to answer that."

"But-", Medha pauses and takes a deep breath, as if she has just learnt the secrets of the universe, then continues in her most serious tone "If he's an Aries or Leo, he'll be the best match for you, my Gemini bitch!"

A collective protesting groan rises at this and Anan hops off the stool shaking her head vigorously, "Medha I love you to death, but please for the love of God, stop matchmaking me with anyone just because your astrology says so."

"But stars ARE the real deal!"

"Okay I will listen to all about rising sun and aesthetic moon after I nap for 23 years", Anan is already moving to the staircase to her lonely, cold bed in search of warmth, clutching her backpack loosely.

"There is nothing called aesthetic moon but okay", Medha follows Anan for a bit until she can grab her by the shoulder and smooch her loud and square on the cheeks. Anan makes a face of disgust but smiles nonetheless. They are quite used to with Anan's indifference towards skinship because all of them know how much she likes affection deep down her tsundere facade.

Her room is situated across the opposite end of the corridor upstairs, beside Mourushy's one. Anan's room has an air that screams her personality - baby blue walls, comfortable bed with a thick mattress, fluffy cushions, a big window for stargazing and a wide sill to sit on and enjoy the nature, especially when it rains. Everything is arranged in a way so that they could provide the comfort and quiet Anan looks for everyday. It hasn’t been a full minute since Anan entered the room when she hears the doorknob turning with a screech. Medha's puppy eyes are visible in front of her and Anan cannot help breaking into a smile.

"You're okay, right? You actually had a nice time yesterday?", Medha steps a little into the room but not completely leaving the doorstep. It's like silently asking Anan if she is okay talking about it and not agitating her in the process.

"Yeah, I did", Anan is genuine with this one, "It was really nice to go to the countryside and have a little break. I wish I were with you guys instead though."

"Awwn, we can go there sometime!", Medha finally leaves her spot and walks up to Anan to engulf her into a tight embrace. "Let's plan a picnic on the weekends, when we're all free."

"Yeaah we should start planning soon!", the excitement sounds so nice in Anan's voice.

Medha soon disappears into the corridor because Anan really needs to take some rest before lunch, or else she'll have a hard week ahead. She hasn’t notice when the soft sunlight faded outside and the whole sky turned into a playground of dark clouds. It felt like a lifetime before the sky opens, letting out everything it had been holding inside for days and just pouring down a thousand drops of rain without caring for the world. Anan’s legs pull her towards the window and make her sit on her favorite window sill, so she could touch rain on the cold glass and in return, the rain could touch her cold heart. In that moment, Anan wishes she were like the sky.

After all, rain always makes her feel different.

꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳

Rain makes her feel horrible. It's beyond her understanding how people could find joy and happiness in something as inconvenient and disturbing as rain. Not to mention how it does nothing good except drenching working people from head to toe and creating heavy traffic on the streets.

Mourushy fidgets with her phone while her whole stomach turns into a pit of nervousness. _Damn it,_ she thinks, _I really should have got that new charger._ With an anxious anticipation, she looks down her screen and prays that her phone at least turns on, even with 3% charge. Apparently her prayers are listened to and her phone actually turns on with 7% battery. Mourushy wastes no time to jump to the messaging app, ignoring at least 137 messages all asking for her whereabouts. She enters the chat box on the top of her screen and starts typing vigorously. Her words are cut when there comes a call from the owner of the same chat box. She picks up within seconds.

"I can explain, I CAN! I AM SO SORRY. You had told me to get a new charger but I ignored you because I must ignore all the good advices my sister gives me. It's my fault I admit it, my charger broke yesterday and I had to turn my phone off in case I needed the last 10% for emergency."

"Well THIS IS EMERGENCY AND YOUR PHONE WAS TURNED OFF THE WHOLE TIME!"

Mourushy is huffing after explaining everything in a single breathe, but she knows this one's on her. She really should have listened to her twin this once.

"I'm sorry, I know you all were worried. Can you please tell the others that I'm on my way and I'll be at home soon?"

Ushoshy lets out a sign on the other side of the phone, "Course I will. How are you getting home though? Where's your friends?"

"Umm, actually... I'm alone and I have to take the bus home. I'm at the bus stand now."

"But it's raining?? Do you have a shelter, Mourushy? Do you have an umbrella? Do you have money to buy one??"

"I'm fiiiine", Mourushy unnecessarily drags the word to emphasize on how fine she actually is, drenched in rain and shivering from the cold wind. "I'm wearing a Parka and I'm standing under a shed, so it's cool."

"Which Parka?"

God, she _hates_ how her twin can see through her lies.

"The black one."

"Good try, I'm wearing it right now."

"At least _you're_ warm between the two of us."

Mourushy could hear Ushoshy rolling her eyes on the opposite end of the phone and then sighing a little.

"I'm worried for you, do you want me to come and get you? I can ask my flat mate to drive me where you are?"

"Ushoshy, no! That's insane, why will you drive to me in this weather? Listen, I'll be fine. The bus will be here any moment now, I already have the ticket. Once I hop on it, I'll be home in no time."

"Okay, then share your location with me. And if you don't get home in an hour, I'm filing a missing child report!"

"Fine by me. It's you who will feel embarrassed later", Mourushy cackles with an evil grin on her face. Teasing Ushoshy was really the second funniest thing to do, the first was deliberately ignoring her when she's talking.

"Ugh shut up! Your phone will die anytime now. Oh by the way, have you eaten anything??"

"Can't hear you the network is poor sorry gotta go my phone is dying by Ushoshy I love you", Mourushy cuts off in a rush before Ushoshy can detect anymore of her bullshits. She looks at the notification bar and stares at the bright red 2% battery glaring at her. She quickly shares her location with her sister, although the tracking will be cut off if her phone dies, but who cares anyway. She thinks of shooting a quick message to her housemates too but her screen falls to a pitch black before she could hit the send button. _Wow this sucks_ , Mourushy wipes the little droplets of water from her brows and sits on a wet metal stool kept for awaiting passengers. The day feels too damn long already and it's only 11 in the morning.

God, Mourushy _hates_ rain with a burning passion.

꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳

It's half past 12 in the noon when Raisa's phone screen lits up. She eyes the phone with half attention while her fingers hover over the keyboard. She swears she heard two different notification tones of two different phones chime up at the same time from the outside, and she's pretty sure two other phones are buzzing on the floor above, which could only mean one thing.

**The group chat.**

  
Raisa has always loved this culture, texting in the chat even when they could just interact verbally. They could be sitting in the same room and still be texting and ranting and sharing memes in the chat. And Raisa loved the fact that they didn’t need to shy away from sharing anything. _**Anything**_ in italic and bold, starting from morning poo experiences to inappropriate sexual jokes to recent crush discussions to earthly arguments to daily discoveries. The chat is _never_ dead. It had never been during finals, presentations, interviews, parties, mournings. The group chat has somehow become a safe space for all of them. When they weren’t allowed the affection or warmth from each other, the group chat was the shelter. It kept them warm on countless nights and afternoons and dawns. No matter what time or what situation, someone was always there. And sometimes having just one person listen to a train of broken thoughts made huge differences.

Raisa picks up her phone to see that there are already a few new messages in the chat. _The group name is so dope this time_ , she chuckles to herself.

**Uranus ain’t a planet, it’s the whole damn universe**

**Buafaq :** That's just how life is for broke irresponsible adults like us

 **Nedha :** In conclusion, capitalism can suck my toenails.

 **Faisa :** Well technically, you can probably buy some expensive toy shit that will suck your toenails and in a twisted way, capitalism will indeed suck your toenails.

 **Nedha :** ...Why do I know you?

 **Faisa :** Irrelevant, but what's the context?

 **Betha :** Remember the pretty Satin Medha had showed us pictures of? She had a call with the dealer and apparently the price doubled in a week :(

 **Faisa :** Shit, that's insane. Is that why I heard a muffled scream a while ago?

 **Buafaq :** 👁👁

 **Nedha :** I cannot agree or deny this accusation.

 **Faisa :** Fair enough

 **Betha :** What are you all doing and why is nobody coming to join me in the living room

 **Nedha :** omw

 **Buafaq :** I gotta check the new batch of exfoliators

 **Faisa :** I am expressing my undying love for herbal tea to my followers and subtly begging them to purchase my new blend of peppermint and ginger

 **Betha :** She means she's writing a review

 **Nedha :** On her Blog

 **Faisa** : Attagirl (s)

 **Buafaq :** What's for lunch

 **Nedha :** isn’t it Takeaway day today??

 **Buafaq** : I guess so but idk what I wanna eat

 **Faisa :** (2)

 **Betha** : Shall we just cook something at home?

 **Nedha :** I'm still tired from the traditional English style breakfast party

 **Buafaq :** she has a point

 **Faisa :** I have an idea and you're gonna hate it

 **Nedha** : Don't we always

 **Betha** : what is ittt

 **Faisa :** Why don't we make something *reaalllyy easyyy* on our induction so we could watch Tv while cooking and eating so *less tiring*

 **Buafaq :** That actually sounds pretty decent

 **Betha :** WAIT! I HAVE THE PERFECT THING IN MY MIND!!

 **Nedha :** should I be concerned

 **Betha :** LET'S MAKE DUMPLINGS

 **Nedha :** I should have been

 **Buafaq :** ummm

 **Faisa :** You do realize kneading the dough and making the wrappers take quite a lot of time and energy?

 **Betha :** You all seem to have forgotten about the instant dumpling wrappers and rice papers we had picked from the store last week

 **Buafaq :** wow

 **Nedha :** I'm in

 **Faisa :** I love instant food business

 **Betha :** everyone meet me in the living room now

 **Faisa :** Yes Captain

 **Buafaq :** Yes Daddy

 **Nedha :** I'm literally here beside you

 **Betha :** And straddling my legs

 **Nedha :** Not my fault that you're soft

 **Betha :** I'm soft for you uwu

 **Faisa :** excuse me while I gag

 **Buafaq :** And here I thought you had hots for ME, Katha

 **Faisa :** huh, men.

 **Betha :** EXCUSE ME??

**Anna is typing...**

**Faisa :** shit

 **Nedha :** Did we wake her up

 **Buafaq :** Was her phone not on silent

 **Betha :** Maybe on Vibrations...

**Anna is typing...**

**Faisa :** RUN

 **Anna** : YOU LITTLE SHITS

꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳

When they planned for a little group cooking session at their living room, they were thinking of warm sunlight and cool breezes and tropical music coming from the stereo and yeah, basically all the aesthetic shit of Pinterest. What they didn’t expect was a gloomy sky, loud rumblings of the cloud, occasional thunder, bad network and no electricity. The vibe instantly went south when it started raining cats and dogs, because apparently their sudden enthusiasm vanished into thin air. All they wanted to do then was being lazy.

"I wish we ordered takeout instead", Nusfaq tilts her head in regret as she stir fries the prawns in garlic and butter on the induction cooker. Her friends are scattered around her in close proximity and all busy with their respective tasks. 

"It would have taken years to arrive though, and we wouldn’t even be able to complain cause they always mess up the orders when the weather's bad", Raisa answers, continuing to cut the vegetables in bite sized shapes. She regrets starting to cut the carrots in julienne because now she has to cut all the carrots and cucumbers and raw papayas in _julienne_. 

"Why were you all so enthusiastic about it while I was sleeping and why are you so down now that I'm awake?", Anan hums. She is the designated instant-dumpling-wrappers-and-rice-paper-assorter. She places the thin sheets on the plates and puts them on the low table placed at the center of the room.

"Because it was supposed to be more energetic than this", Medha looks up at her from where she's sitting on the floor surrounded by numerous bottles of soy sauce, fish sauce, chill oil, sesame oil and pots of different herbs. "I mean so far I've only just poured sauces in a bowl and mixed it and I'm already tired."

"Ahh c'mon you guys, cheer up! It's been long since we cooked together, who gives a shit about the rain!", Katha chimes up. She is probably the only one who still has the energy left, considering it was she who proposed the plan in the first place.

"The rain's cool. Having no electricity is not. I thought we'd get to watch TV together after like lifetime."

"Rai stop whining and just bring your laptop, I know you have 63 unwatched movies there", Katha retorts and gets everyone back to working, "Guys just bring everything to the table now. We'll make and eat simultaneously!"

Medha rolls her eyes and adds, "Bold of you to assume I'll be able to pay attention to making rolls, eating them AND watching a movie at the same time but if you insist, ma'am."

Anan and Nusfaq snorts in sync at the jab to which Katha pays no attention. It's their dynamic, her's and Medha's, to always, always pull each other's tails. It's healthy comedy for the family so they never stopped at it.

Raisa returns with her laptop in one hand, which she calls 'Fifi' and a wireless speaker in another. The rest four gets up with their utensils and ingredients to make space for the laptop on the floor. After some rustling and shuffling, the low table is crowded with a plate full of fresh veggies, two plates of dumpling wrappers and rice papers, a bowl topped with warm garlic-tossed prawns, another bowl of chicken filling and a tiny container of chilli oil sauce. 

They argue for a while over what they should watch, but finally settle on animations. What can be better than animations on a day like this! Soon as the movie rolls, they fell into silence except for the rhythmic sound of their munching.

"As the official dumpling wrap~per of this household, I would like to beg you to not press it too hard", Katha occasionally interrupts whenever they mess up their dumplings a little too much, but honestly, who cares how they look like! 

Because in the end, the day didn’t turn half as bad as they thought.

꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳

_Worst day of my life,_ Mourushy can't even think clearly when she finally reaches the familiar alley of her house. At this point she is certain that this is God punishing her for all the time she avoided doing laundry in time. _How bad could it go,_ she had thought earlier the day right after talking to her sister but boy, was she in for a surprise. Her bus came 40 minutes late, only for Mourushy to find that it was crowded to the roof and she had no choice but to wait for the next one. The next bus came quicker than expectations indeed, until it got stuck on the heavy traffic and stayed at the same place for 2 hour and 35 minutes while it stormed violently. Which is why it took her more than 3 hours to reach a 1 hour destination and during the whole 3 hours, she kicked herself for not even having a working phone so she could at least listen to some music. So no, _no way_ there can be a worse day than this.

The only clever decision Mourushy was able to make for the whole day was crashing at the convenient store right after getting off the bus and allowing her stomach to enjoy the privilege of the action that's called eating. Thanks to that, she still has a bit of composure left in herself.

When she finally stands in front of her house, she finds herself to be a bit surprised. The house looks totally dead, no lights coming from the window at all. It's late afternoon now but the grey sky makes it look like midnight. The whole alley is disturbingly silent and Mourushy can't help feeling a little chilly at the odds.

 _Did they go somewhere,_ she knocks this thought out as soon as she realizes that it's nearly impossible and unreasonable for a person with an average IQ to go partying in this weather. _Yeah they would have informed me if they'd gone somewhere_ , and she rejects the second thought too when she figures that there is literally no way to contact her with her phone being deader than Adolf Hitler.

She ponders over ringing the doorbell or using her keys for a while and decides to do the latter for some unknown reason. Somewhere deep inside her heart, she knows if she sneaks in quietly, she'll be safer considering the spooky environment of the cottage. She opens the door swiftly and is met with instant pitch black darkness. Not to exaggerate but she is taken aback, as her friends never leave the house dark even when they go out. This could only mean one thing.

_Theft._

Her heart starts beating fast as the possible theory dawns into her and she clutches her bag tightly in both of her hands. If she swings it with correct pressure and right angle, it should take down a thief right? Mourushy tiptoes towards the kitchen, keeping her steps light. The counter is lit with the lights from the street, that means the curtains of the living room are open. Mourushy snaps her head to the right, in a hope to catch any sight of the thief. And to her utter surprise, she is met with a very peculiar sight.

Her five housemates are sitting in complete darkness, without moving a single muscle or even blinking. The only reason Mourushy saw them is the tiny blueish light coming from the laptop screen. There’s a pile of dishes on the table and nobody seems to be bothered by the half eaten lettuces scattered casually.

"What the hell are you guys doing here?"

A series of extra loud gasps are heard in sync. Her friends look at her with unfocused eyes, as if she's a ghost and not supposed to be disturbing their weird movie afternoon.

"OH MY GOD, you scared the shit outta me!", Katha stands up in an instant, "Why did you sneak in like that? We were worried for you!"

Mourushy gives a skeptical look towards the general direction of the laptop, "I'm fine Katha, but why are you guys watching a movie with no sound and in a scary setting like this? If I didn’t see the laptop, I'd think you are plan chatting!"

"That's actually a very interesting idea, we should try that next time", Raisa stands up to take a few big steps until she's hugging her friend. "The electricity is down, the speaker died a while ago and the original sound of Fifi is really low so we were just staring hard at the subtitles."

"Which is why you couldn’t hear me coming in, oh wait", Mourushy groans, "There's no electricity? You mean I cannot take a hot bath after having the shittiest day of my life?"

Everyone turns to her and rushes forward. "Oh boy, you had a rough day, didn’t you?" Medha pouts and put a firm hand on Mourushy's crouched shoulders, "But we gotchu Ru, the electricity had come for a little while and we turned your geyser on then, so the water should be hot till now."

Mourushy could cry at this. A hot water bath is the only thing she can think of right now. Anan and Nusfaq also come to stand within the little circle they have formed unconsciously and try to extend some form of comfort to their very tired friend.

"Rushy just come upstairs, I'll run the bath for you and you can get in quickly", says her room neighbour.

"Have you had lunch, Rushy?" Nusfaq eyes her and then looks back to the pile of used dishes and plates, "Umm, we have food, I think?", She trails off staring questioningly at Raisa and Katha.

"Yeah we do! I can make you some quick pasta before you shower, give me 5 mins Rushu!", Raisa is already moving towards the counter when Mourushy grabs her wrist.

"Guys I've eaten just now, at a store. Don't worry about me", Mourushy tries to look cheerful but fails, "I'm just tired more than I've been in my whole life."

"Oh bub, come let's get you to the bath. We have so much to hear from you after you're sober from your tiredness."

"Yeah I cannot wait to tell you all about the best day of my life aka yesterday and the worst day of my life aka today", Mourushy says excitedly and everyone lets out a casual laugh. They tug at Mourushy to move upstairs as soon as possible but Mourushy tugs back. They halt in surprise and looks back with questioning gaze.

"Oh, I missed home guys!"

“It’s just been two days though.”

“Two _dreadful_ days.”

  
“You know what they say? Just take one day at a time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some behind the scenes :
> 
> # Don't think I've just made up the whole chat based on internet jokes, we literally talk like this in the chat. We are the funniest people I know, and I've actually used our actual nicknames in the chat here (The chat name is my brainchild but we do have bizarre group names and icons like this so... )
> 
> # The whole idea of this chapter has been there in my mind for two months but I didn't have the urge to write it down. I've literally written the whole thing yesterday and today, and the writing was so fun this time uwu
> 
> # I had originally planned to add another part in this chap, but it would have broken the flow of it. Also, the next scenario will be a n g s t ~ so it deserves to be in a whole another chapter! I promise to get the chapter out asap, cause currently my head is buzzing with the plots of the next two chapters
> 
> Now the people who aren't BTV, please leave becasue things are gonna get real soft here bruh (Dear Friends of BTV, if you are still here, please don't cringe or atleast bury them deep inside your soul thanxx)
> 
> To the people with whom I have been sharing everyday of my life for the past 4 years,  
> not to be poetic but this, all the things we have, still feels like a fever dream. You are the best part of my life and I don't believe in reincarnation, but I do believe in multiple universes. So if there are other dimensions to the universe we live, I want you all in all my universes, with all of my existences. I don't think I'll ever find the comfort, the peace, the silence of our friendship in any other earthly relation, so let me cherish you all with everything I have. There has to be a better term than 'soulmates' to describe what you are to me, and maybe I have found it.
> 
> You are my Parabatai. All six of you. You are a part of my soul and my existence and I am yours. There is nothing in this universe that can ever take away you from me and me from you.  
> You and I, We are made of stardusts.
> 
> Happy Birthday to BTV, and Happy 4 years of a better, happier, merrier, funnier, lovelier life. I love you as much as the whole world can hold. Let's be together in the warmth of our cottage, forever.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi to everyone who somehow ended up reading my first ever fic, based on original characters!
> 
> I don't know how many chapters I will end up writing, but the first 2/3 chapters will mostly give you insight of the characters and the relationship among them. Pardon me if the foundation chapters feel a little boring!
> 
> Also, I know nothing about architecture so the description of the house is rather messy. I tried my best to make the structure believable and coherent but if you do find any funny mistake, please be Jared, 19. :((
> 
> All the main characters are in their late 20s, I don't wanna point a specific age but for the readers' imagination, you can think of them as being 27+ y/o. If I introduce new characters in the further chapters, I'll hint about their ages as well. 
> 
> Lastly, I'm writing this fic for the most treasured people of my life, who have given me comfort and affection like nobody else. To BTV and Afakmenura, you are my stars. I love you.


End file.
